About daybreak the weather changed, and the sea came rolling in, pitching us about in the narrow enclosure in a fearful manner.  The water had risen so high that we could not get out of our pens; so, climbing into the bath-rooms above, we held on to the bow and stern lines of our boats, endeavoring to keep them from being dashed to pieces against the pilings of the pier.  While in this mortifying predicament, expecting each moment to see our faithful little skiffs wrecked most ingloriously in a bath-house, sounds were heard and some men appeared, who, coming to our assistance, proved themselves friends in need.  We fished the boats out of the pen with my watch-tackle, and hoisted each one at a time into the bath-house that had covered it.

Two gentlemen then approached, one claiming Saddles as his guest, while the other, Mr. J. P. Montross, conducted me to his attractive tree-embowered home; and with the soft and winning accent of an educated gentleman of Yucatan, the country of his birth, placed his house and belongings at my disposal.  “I was in New Orleans when you went through that city,” he said, “and learning that you would pass through Biloxi, I at once telegraphed to my agent here to detain you if possible as my guest until I should arrive.”

We remained a week in Biloxi, where I became daily more and more impressed with the great natural advantages of these Gulf towns as winter watering-places for northern invalids or sportsmen.  During one of my rambles about Biloxi, I stumbled upon a curious little plantation, the lessee of which was entirely absorbed in the occupation of raising water-cresses.  In Mr. Scheffer’s garden, which was about half an acre in extent, I found fifteen little springs flowing out of a substratum of chalk.  The water was very warm and clear, while the springs varied in character.  There was a chalk-spring, a sulphur-spring, and an iron-spring, all within a few feet of each other.  The main spring flowed out of the ground near the head, or highest part of the garden, while ditches of about two feet in width, with boarded sides to prevent their caving in, carried the water of the various springs to where it was needed.

The depth of water in these ditches was not over eighteen inches.  Their preparation is very simple, sand to the depth of an inch or two being placed at the bottom, and the roots, cuttings, &c., of the cresses dropped into them.  This prolific plant begins at once to multiply, sending up thousands of hair-like shoots, with green leaves floating upon the surface of the running water.  Mr. Scheffer informed me that he marketed his stock three times a week, cutting above water the matured plants, and putting them into bundles, or bunches, of about six inches in diameter, and then packing them with the tops downward in barrels and baskets.  These bunches of cresses sell for fifteen cents apiece on the ground where they are grown.  New Orleans consumes most of the stock; but invalids in various places are fast becoming customers, as the virtues of this plant are better understood.  It is of great benefit in all diseases of the liver, in pulmonary complaints, and in dyspepsia with its thousand ills.